Oslo - Vietnamese police on Thursday apprehended three
Norwegian nationals shortly after they met with Thich Quang Do, a
veteran pro-democracy activist, a Norwegian human rights group said.
Do, 77, was last September named winner of the 2006 Rafto Prize
'for his personal courage and perseverance through three decades of
peaceful opposition against the communist regime in Vietnam.'
Arne Liljedahl Lynngard, head of the Rafto Foundation board, had
earlier this year been told by the Vietnamese embassy in neighbouring
Denmark that he would not be granted entry after he openly stated
that he intended to meet with Do.
The human rights group therefore decided to send a representative,
Therese Jebsen, who travelled on a tourist visa along with Norwegian-
Vietnamese human rights activist Kieu Tran who served as a
interpreter, and a reporter with TV2 news, Lynngard told Deutsche
Presse-Agentur dpa.
Lynngard said Jebsen managed to present the diploma to Do who is
held in 'pagod arrest' in Ho Chi Minh City before police arrived and
took the three Norwegians to a nearby police station for questioning.
'They were released but we are concerned that they have ordered
Kieu Tran to return for further questioning,' Lynngard said, adding
that Norwegian embassy officials had been alerted about the incident.
Lynngard said the Vietnamese authorities have recently stepped up
their campaign against dissidents and said 'there was a climate of
fear' in the South Asian country.
The decision to hand over the diploma to Do was a means of
'showing support for those who call for freedom of speech and a
multiparty system,' Lynngard said, adding that Do, who has diabetes,
appeared to be in reasonable good spirits.
Do had decided not to visit Norway last year to accept the award
since he was afraid he would not be allowed to return if he left
Vietnam.
Do is also deputy patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of
Vietnam that is not officially recognized by the Vietnamese
authorities.
The prize, worth 50,000 kroner (7,600 dollars), was symbolically
accepted on Do's behalf by Vo Van Ai, Paris-based president of the
Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, Lynngard said.
The Rafto award was created in 1986 in memory of Professor Thorolf
Rafto of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business
Administration in Bergen, who was an outspoken human rights activist.
Four previous winners of the Rafto Prize - Aung San Suu Kyi, Jose
Ramos-Horta, Kim Dae-jung and Shirin Ebadi - later went on to receive
the Nobel Peace Prize.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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